Honorary Professor Zhiguo Yuan
Honorary Professor

Zhiguo Yuan

Email: 

Background

Prof Yuan received his PhD degree in aeronautical engineering in 1992 from Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China. He changed research direction to wastewater management in 1994, when he took up a postdoctoral research fellow position at Ghent University, Belgium. He joined the Advanced Water Management Centre (AWMC), renamed as the Australian Centre for Water and Environmental Biotechnology in July 2021, at The University of Queensland in 1998. He served as the AWMC Deputy Director 2001-2014, and then the AWMC/ACWEB Director in 2015 to July 2022. His research focuses on development of innovative solutions for urban water management and environmental biotechnology through effective integration of fundamental science and applied engineering. He won over $50M in government, industry and university research funding including many ARC Discovery, Linkage and Fellowship grants, mostly as the lead Chief Investigator. Prof Yuan was one of the founding members of the $117m Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities. He has published intensively both in specialised journals such as Water Research and Environmental Science and Technology, and multidisciplinary journals including Nature and Science. He is the founder of three biotechnology businesses namely SeweX, Cloevis and Lodomat, and his research has delivered documented savings of hundreds of millions of dollars to the Australian water industry. His research achievements and leadership have been recognized through major national and international awards including the 2015 ATSE Clunies Ross Award and the International Water Association (IWA) 2014 Global Project Innovation Award (Applied Research Category). Prof Yuan was named as one of Engineers Australia’s Top 100 Most Influential Engineers for 2015. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE), an IWA Distinguished Fellow, and was awarded the highly prestigious ARC Australian Laureate Fellowship in 2017. He was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in January 2019.

Availability

Honorary Professor Zhiguo Yuan is:
Not available for supervision
Media expert

Fields of research

Environmental biotechnology Environmental engineering

Qualifications

  • Bachelor of Engineering, Beijing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics
  • Doctor of Philosophy, Beijing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics

Research interests

  • Integrated Urban Water Management

    A whole-of-system approach to managing multiple water resources in an urban water cycle and multiple elements in an urban water system.

  • Digital water

    Descriptive, diagnostic, predictive and prescriptive data analytics for proactive urban water management

  • Sustainable carbon bioeconomy

    Gas fermentation to convert organic wastes to carbon commodities

  • Corrosion and odour management in sewers systems

    Effective control of H2S production in sewer systems and minimise its effect on sewer corrosion and odour generation

  • Sludge management in wastewater treatment systems

    Innovative technologies for enhancing bioenergy recovery from wastewater and reducing sludge production

  • Greenhouse gas emissions from water and wastewater systems

    Fugitive greenhouse gas emissions from wastewater systems including CH4 emission in sewers, N2O emission from wastewater treatment processes and CH4 and N2O emissions from estuaries, dams and bays

  • Biological nutrient removal and recovery

    Innovative technologies and fundamental science for biological nitrogen and phosphorus removal and recovery from wastewater

Research impacts

  • His research in sewer management has fundamentally changed practice of many Australian water utilities in corrosion and odour management in sewers. The documented savings to date for the water industry amounts to approximately $400 million, based on the testimonial letters provided by industry partners.
  • He has collaborated with almost all major water utilities in Australia through many ARC Industry Linkage projects as well as a large number of collaborative research projects.
  • He was a founding and Executive Committee member of the $117 million Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cites, with over 80 industry partners, and led the Future Technologies Program Leader.
  • Established SeweX, a consulting company under UniQuest Pty Ltd, in 2008. SeweX has undertaken over $3 million consulting work since 2009. Clients included both Australian water utilities and companies from overseas. SeweX has been recently licensed to Envirosuite, an ASX listed technology company.
  • Established Cloevis Pty Ltd, a spin-off company from my sewer research. The company has licenced its patented technology on biofilm removal from sewer pipes to USP Technologies (US).
  • His research on sludge treatment using free nitrous acid has led to the development of the patented Lodomat technology that substantially increases biogas production from wastewater sludge. The technology has recently attracted >$5M (+ >$4M in-kind) industry and government funding for pilot plant demonstrations.
  • His research has frequently attracted media attention, with many articles published in newspapers such as The Australian and The Courier Mail, the News Agency Websites (e.g. ABC, Xinhua Agency), and industry magazines, newsletters and websites. Five of his papers have Altmetric Attention Scores that are in the top 5% of the 6.4 million research outputs tracked.
  • He is an Editor of Water Research, a top journal in water science and technology.
  • He published over 500 papers in internationally leading journals (the full list and citation record: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=1IPdGqkAAAAJ&hl=en)

Search Professor Zhiguo Yuan’s works on UQ eSpace

805 works between 1992 and 2025
All (805) Journal Article (623) Book Chapter (9) Conference Publication (169) Book (1) Other Outputs (3)

341 - 360 of 805 works

2016

Journal Article

Metagenomic analysis of anammox communities in three different microbial aggregates

Guo, Jianhua, Peng, Yongzhen, Fan, Lu, Zhang, Liang, Ni, Bing-Jie, Kartal, Boran, Feng, Xin, Jetten, Mike S. M. and Yuan, Zhiguo (2016). Metagenomic analysis of anammox communities in three different microbial aggregates. Environmental Microbiology, 18 (SI), 2979-2993. doi: 10.1111/1462-2920.13132

Metagenomic analysis of anammox communities in three different microbial aggregates

2016

Journal Article

Wastewater GHG accounting protocols as compared to the state of GHG science

Willis, John L., Yuan, Zhiguo and Murthy, Sudhir (2016). Wastewater GHG accounting protocols as compared to the state of GHG science. Water Environment Research, 88 (8), 704-714. doi: 10.2175/106143016X14609975746965

Wastewater GHG accounting protocols as compared to the state of GHG science

2016

Journal Article

Reducing N2O emission from a domestic-strength nitrifying culture by free nitrous acid-based sludge treatment

Wang, Dongbo, Wang, Qilin, Laloo, Andrew Elohim and Yuan, Zhiguo (2016). Reducing N2O emission from a domestic-strength nitrifying culture by free nitrous acid-based sludge treatment. Environmental Science and Technology, 50 (14), 7425-7433. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.6b00660

Reducing N2O emission from a domestic-strength nitrifying culture by free nitrous acid-based sludge treatment

2016

Journal Article

Flow characteristics in free impinging jet reactor by particle image velocimetry (PIV) investigation

Zhang, Jun, Liu, Youzhi, Qi, Guisheng, Jiao, Weizhou and Yuan, Zhiguo (2016). Flow characteristics in free impinging jet reactor by particle image velocimetry (PIV) investigation. Fluid Dynamics Research, 48 (4) 045505, 045505. doi: 10.1088/0169-5983/48/4/045505

Flow characteristics in free impinging jet reactor by particle image velocimetry (PIV) investigation

2016

Journal Article

Event-driven model predictive control of sewage pumping stations for sulfide mitigation in sewer networks

Liu, Yiqi, Ganigue, Ramon, Sharma, Keshab and Yuan, Zhiguo (2016). Event-driven model predictive control of sewage pumping stations for sulfide mitigation in sewer networks. Water Research, 98, 376-383. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2016.04.039

Event-driven model predictive control of sewage pumping stations for sulfide mitigation in sewer networks

2016

Journal Article

Determining multiple responses of Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 to an antimicrobial agent, free nitrous acid

Gao, Shu-Hong, Fan, Lu, Peng, Lai, Guo, Jianhua, Agullo-Barcelo, Miriam, Yuan, Zhiguo and Bond, Philip L. (2016). Determining multiple responses of Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 to an antimicrobial agent, free nitrous acid. Environmental Science and Technology, 50 (10), 5305-5312. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.6b00288

Determining multiple responses of Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 to an antimicrobial agent, free nitrous acid

2016

Journal Article

Achieving stable nitritation for mainstream deammonification by combining free nitrous acid-based sludge treatment and oxygen limitation

Wang, Dongbo, Wang, Qilin, Laloo, Andrew, Xu, Yifeng, Bond, Philip L. and Yuan, Zhiguo (2016). Achieving stable nitritation for mainstream deammonification by combining free nitrous acid-based sludge treatment and oxygen limitation. Scientific Reports, 6 (1) 25547, e25547.1-e25547.10. doi: 10.1038/srep25547

Achieving stable nitritation for mainstream deammonification by combining free nitrous acid-based sludge treatment and oxygen limitation

2016

Journal Article

Enhancing post aerobic digestion of full-scale anaerobically digested sludge using free nitrous acid pretreatment

Wang, Qilin, Zhou, Xu, Peng, Lai, Wang, Dongbo, Xie, Guo-Jun and Yuan, Zhiguo (2016). Enhancing post aerobic digestion of full-scale anaerobically digested sludge using free nitrous acid pretreatment. Chemosphere, 150, 152-158. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2016.02.035

Enhancing post aerobic digestion of full-scale anaerobically digested sludge using free nitrous acid pretreatment

2016

Journal Article

Achieving complete nitrogen removal by coupling nitritation-anammox and methane-dependent denitrification: A model-based study

Chen, Xueming, Guo, Jianhua, Xie, Guo-Jun, Yuan, Zhiguo and Ni, Bing-Jie (2016). Achieving complete nitrogen removal by coupling nitritation-anammox and methane-dependent denitrification: A model-based study. Biotechnology and Bioengineering, 113 (5), 1035-1045. doi: 10.1002/bit.25866

Achieving complete nitrogen removal by coupling nitritation-anammox and methane-dependent denitrification: A model-based study

2016

Journal Article

Enhancing post anaerobic digestion of full-scale anaerobically digested sludge using free nitrous acid treatment

Zhang, Tingting, Wang, Qilin, Ye, Liu and Yuan, Zhiguo (2016). Enhancing post anaerobic digestion of full-scale anaerobically digested sludge using free nitrous acid treatment. Journal of Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology, 43 (5), 713-717. doi: 10.1007/s10295-016-1742-x

Enhancing post anaerobic digestion of full-scale anaerobically digested sludge using free nitrous acid treatment

2016

Journal Article

Modeling of nitrous oxide production from nitritation reactors treating real anaerobic digestion liquor

Wang, Qilin, Ni, Bing-Jie, Lemaire, Romain, Hao, Xiaodi and Yuan, Zhiguo (2016). Modeling of nitrous oxide production from nitritation reactors treating real anaerobic digestion liquor. Scientific Reports, 6 (1) 25336, e25336.1-e25336.8. doi: 10.1038/srep25336

Modeling of nitrous oxide production from nitritation reactors treating real anaerobic digestion liquor

2016

Journal Article

Model-based feasibility assessment of membrane biofilm reactor to achieve simultaneous ammonium, dissolved methane, and sulfide removal from anaerobic digestion liquor

Chen, Xueming, Liu, Yiwen, Peng, Lai, Yuan, Zhiguo and Ni, Bing-Jie (2016). Model-based feasibility assessment of membrane biofilm reactor to achieve simultaneous ammonium, dissolved methane, and sulfide removal from anaerobic digestion liquor. Scientific Reports, 6 (1) 25114, e25114.1-e25114.13. doi: 10.1038/srep25114

Model-based feasibility assessment of membrane biofilm reactor to achieve simultaneous ammonium, dissolved methane, and sulfide removal from anaerobic digestion liquor

2016

Journal Article

Modeling N2O production by ammonia oxidizing bacteria at varying inorganic carbon concentrations by coupling the catabolic and anabolic processes

Peng, Lai, Ni, Bing-Jie, Law, Yingyu and Yuan, Zhiguo (2016). Modeling N2O production by ammonia oxidizing bacteria at varying inorganic carbon concentrations by coupling the catabolic and anabolic processes. Chemical Engineering Science, 144, 386-394. doi: 10.1016/j.ces.2016.01.033

Modeling N2O production by ammonia oxidizing bacteria at varying inorganic carbon concentrations by coupling the catabolic and anabolic processes

2016

Journal Article

Effect of free nitrous acid pre-treatment on primary sludge biodegradability and its implications

Zhang, Tingting, Wang, Qilin, Ye, Liu and Yuan, Zhiguo (2016). Effect of free nitrous acid pre-treatment on primary sludge biodegradability and its implications. Chemical Engineering Journal, 290, 31-36. doi: 10.1016/j.cej.2016.01.028

Effect of free nitrous acid pre-treatment on primary sludge biodegradability and its implications

2016

Journal Article

Predicting concrete corrosion of sewers using artificial neural network

Jiang, Guangming, Keller, Jurg, Bond, Philip L. and Yuan, Zhiguo (2016). Predicting concrete corrosion of sewers using artificial neural network. Water Research, 92, 52-60. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2016.01.029

Predicting concrete corrosion of sewers using artificial neural network

2016

Journal Article

Breakage and growth towards a stable aerobic granule size during the treatment of wastewater (vol 47, pg 5338, 2013)

Verawaty, Marieska, Tait, Stephan, Pijuan, Maite, Yuan, Zhiguo and Bond, Philip L. (2016). Breakage and growth towards a stable aerobic granule size during the treatment of wastewater (vol 47, pg 5338, 2013). Water Research, 94, 383-383. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2016.03.048

Breakage and growth towards a stable aerobic granule size during the treatment of wastewater (vol 47, pg 5338, 2013)

2016

Journal Article

Evaluation of different nitrous oxide production models with four continuous long-term wastewater treatment process data series

Sperandio, Mathieu, Pocquet, Mathieu, Guo, Lisha, Ni, Bing-Jie, Vanrolleghem, Peter A. and Yuan, Zhiguo (2016). Evaluation of different nitrous oxide production models with four continuous long-term wastewater treatment process data series. Bioprocess and Biosystems Engineering, 39 (3), 493-510. doi: 10.1007/s00449-015-1532-2

Evaluation of different nitrous oxide production models with four continuous long-term wastewater treatment process data series

2016

Journal Article

Methane dynamics in subtropical freshwater reservoirs and the mediating microbial communities

Musenze, Ronald S., Fan, Lu, Grinham, Alistair, Werner, Ursula, Gale, Deborah, Udy, James and Yuan, Zhiguo (2016). Methane dynamics in subtropical freshwater reservoirs and the mediating microbial communities. Biogeosciences, 128 (1), 233-255. doi: 10.1007/s10533-016-0206-8

Methane dynamics in subtropical freshwater reservoirs and the mediating microbial communities

2016

Journal Article

Unravelling the spatial variation of nitrous oxide emissions from a step-feed plug-flow full scale wastewater treatment plant

Pan, Yuting, van den Akker, Ben, Ye, Liu, Ni, Bing-Jie, Watts, Shane, Reid, Katherine and Yuan, Zhiguo (2016). Unravelling the spatial variation of nitrous oxide emissions from a step-feed plug-flow full scale wastewater treatment plant. Scientific Reports, 6 (1) 20792, 20792. doi: 10.1038/srep20792

Unravelling the spatial variation of nitrous oxide emissions from a step-feed plug-flow full scale wastewater treatment plant

2016

Journal Article

Direct anodic hydrochloric acid and cathodic caustic production during water electrolysis

Lin, Hui-Wen, Cejudo-Marin, Rocio, Jeremiasse, Adriaan W., Rabaey, Korneel, Yuan, Zhiguo and Pikaar, Ilje (2016). Direct anodic hydrochloric acid and cathodic caustic production during water electrolysis. Scientific Reports, 6 (Art No.: 20494) 20494, 20494. doi: 10.1038/srep20494

Direct anodic hydrochloric acid and cathodic caustic production during water electrolysis

Availability

Honorary Professor Zhiguo Yuan is:
Not available for supervision

Supervision history

Current supervision

  • Doctor Philosophy

    Airflow and temperature modelling for sewers

    Principal Advisor

    Other advisors: Dr Jiuling Li

  • Doctor Philosophy

    Understanding of Ventilation-Based Drying for Sewer Corrosion Control

    Principal Advisor

    Other advisors: Dr Jiuling Li, Dr Zhetai Hu

  • Doctor Philosophy

    Data quality assurance in digitalisation of urban water management

    Principal Advisor

    Other advisors: Professor Helen Huang, Dr Jiuling Li, Dr Ruihong Qiu

  • Doctor Philosophy

    Extracellular Electron Transfer-Facilitated Microbial Conversion of Methanol by Eubacterium limosum

    Associate Advisor

    Other advisors: Dr Xueqin Zhang, Dr Bernardino Virdis

  • Doctor Philosophy

    The Understanding of Condensation-induced Concrete Corrsoion in the Sewer Crown Region

    Associate Advisor

    Other advisors: Professor Damien Batstone, Dr Jiuling Li

  • Doctor Philosophy

    Integrated use of magnesium and iron chemicals in urban wastewater systems

    Associate Advisor

    Other advisors: Dr Zhetai Hu

  • Doctor Philosophy

    In-depth understanding of bioprocess and microbial community in a novel methane-based membrane biofilm reactor

    Associate Advisor

    Other advisors: Professor Jianhua Guo

Completed supervision

Enquiries

Contact Honorary Professor Zhiguo Yuan directly for media enquiries about:

  • Corrosion - sewers
  • Odour - sewers
  • Sewers
  • Wastewater management
  • Wastewater treatment
  • Water treatment

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